Consultants 'now need to think creatively'

MANAMA, March 18, 2020

Consultants who have got used to flying into the GCC on a weekly basis to deliver projects for clients, will now need to think creatively on how they can continue to deliver project from a virtual location, an expert says.

“Consultants across the GCC are being severely impacted by flight and travel restrictions. For instance, Saudi Arabia, the biggest buyer of consulting services in the GCC, has suspended all passenger flights in and out of kingdom for a period of two weeks from March 15," said Zoë Stumpf, Head of Consulting Market Trends at Source Global Research, analysts for the global professional services sector.

Virtual work is possible for some projects, but impossible for others, he said.

“The wider impact of the Coronavirus on the GCC consulting industry will be three-fold. In the first instance, some clients will stop existing projects, especially where they involve consultants working extensively in the clients’ office. Strategy work, because so much of the work can be done at a consulting firm’s office or even from the consultants’ home, may be less impacted by this," Stumpf says.

"Second, some sectors and geographies are clearly being more severely hit than others. However, some sectors will find they face new challenges -- manufacturers trying to build new supply chains, for example -- and that might actually increase the demand for consulting in some areas.

"Third, there’s the wider economic impact of the virus: It’s likely that this will push the world economy into a recession, and companies that are generating less profits typically spend less on consulting,” said Stumpf. - TradeArabia News Service